General Benjamin F. Butler

Description

"General Butler was born in Deerfield, N. H., November 6th, 1818. At the time of President Lincoln's call for troops in April, 1861, he held the commission of brigadier general of militia. On the 17th of that month he marched to Annapolis with the Eighth Massachusetts Regiment, and was placed in command of the District of Annapolis, in which the city of Baltimore was included. On May 13th, 1861, he entered Baltimore at the head of 900 men, occupied the city without opposition, and on May 16th was made a major general and assigned to the command of Fortress Monroe and the Department of Eastern Virginia. In August he captured Forts Hatteras and Clark. He then returned to Massachusetts to recruit an expedition for the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi. On March 23rd, 1862, the expedition reached Ship Island, and on April 17th went up the Mississippi. The fleet under Farragut having passed the forts, April 24th, and virtually capture New Orleans, General Butler took possession of the city on May 1st. Near the close of 1863 he was placed in command of the Army of the James. In December, 1864, he conducted an ineffectual expedition against Fort Fisher, and soon afterward was removed from command by General Grant. He died in Washington, D. C., January 11th, 1893." —Leslie, 1896